Background

It is a celebrated early work by the important church architect GF Bodley, incorporating notable stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 by William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

 and his company Morris & Co.

Morris & Co.

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. and its successor Morris & Co. were furnishings and decorative arts manufacturers and retailers founded by the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris...

Bodley was given the commission by Samuel Marling, patriarch of the mill-owning family, who lived in the adjacent Stanley Park House.

The church has a distinctive 'saddleback' tower, derived from French Gothic architecture, which was a significant influence on Bodley's early style. Construction took place in 1861-62. Local labour and contractors were used: Harrison of King's Stanley

King's Stanley

King's Stanley is a village in Gloucestershire, England, situated southwest of the town of Stroud. The village is part of what is known locally as 'The Stanleys', along with its neighbours Leonard Stanley and Stanley Downton...

 were the main contractors; stone carvings were undertaken by Joshua Wall; woodwork by William English and ironwork by T.J Chew.

Bodley designed the pew

Pew

A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...

s and choir-stalls using poppy-heads and fleur de lys

Fleur-de-lis

The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...

 as key motifs, and the font, the inlaid marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

, communion rails and door iron work all show the attention to design that Bodley paid to all aspects of the church.

Equally spectacular is the stained glass. Bodley was a friend of William Morris and at Selsley he gave Morris & Co their first commission for ecclesiastical stained glass. Philip Webb provided the scheme for the whole church and the detail of the Creation window at the west end. Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown and Campfield were all involved.

Organ

The church has a pipe organ by Nicholson dating from 1862. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.